Secular states and the Western model

Education and individual acts of kindness, such as people of one faith protecting neighbours of another during riots, help reduce prejudice. But they cannot by themselves end religious discrimination. Modern states have enormous power, so what kind of state we have matters greatly.

Three kinds of state:

• A theocratic state is governed directly by a priestly order. With no separation between religious and political institutions, such states are known for hierarchy, oppression and denial of freedom to other religions; examples in the book are the Papal states of medieval Europe and, in recent times, the Taliban-controlled state in Afghanistan.
• A state may not be run by priests yet still have a close alliance with one religion: an established religion. Sixteenth-century England officially favoured the Anglican Church; some countries today, such as Pakistan, have an official state religion. Such regimes may leave little room for dissent or religious equality.
• A secular state must be neither theocratic nor have any formal, legal alliance with any religion.

Separation is necessary but not sufficient. A secular state must also be committed to goals drawn at least partly from non-religious sources: peace, religious freedom, freedom from religiously grounded oppression, discrimination and exclusion, and inter-religious and intra-religious equality. The form of separation may differ depending on how a society spells out these values.

The Western (American) model treats separation as mutual exclusion:

• The state does not intervene in religion, and religion does not interfere in the state; each has its own sphere.
• No public policy may have an exclusively religious rationale or be based on religious classification; the state cannot aid religious institutions, including schools run by religious communities.
• Nor can it hinder religious communities within the law: if a religious body forbids women priests or excommunicates dissenters, the state stays out. Religion is a private matter.
• Freedom and equality are understood individually; there is little room for community or minority rights, because most Western societies were religiously homogeneous and focused on domination within a religion.
• There is no place for state-supported religious reform.

Ataturk's Turkey offers a very different secularism: not distance from religion but active intervention and suppression. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who came to power after World War I, ended the institution of the Khalifa in public life and set out to modernise Turkey aggressively. The fez, a traditional cap, was banned by the Hat Law; Western clothing was encouraged; the Gregorian calendar replaced the traditional one; and in 1928 a new Turkish alphabet in modified Latin form was adopted.

Example (new): a country where the head of government must belong to one particular faith by law has an established religion, even if priests do not run it; a secular state would set no religious test for any public office.